Tik Tok number's rocket with stay-at-home users

It is starting to be a generalized truth that the quarantine will sadly have winners and losers. One social media platform is emerging among the winners—Tik Tok. The number of downloads of the 15 to 60-second feel-good app have continued the trend they saw last fall, and with quarantines in place, those numbers have rocketed, captivating thousands of stay-at-home citizens across the world.

Young Internet users are, as one Newsweek headline noted, “trying to get famous” at all costs. Viewers, tired of following the news and looking for a bit of Entertainment as a form of evasion, are responding by turning to Tik Tok for some fun. Companies seeking to advertise their products have also seen promising returns from the Chinese app. The result is that Tik Tok will keep seeing an increase in downloads and ad revenues as the weeks go by, becoming one of the few winners of the quarantine.

Chinese giant ByteDance-owned Tik Tok already had over 1.5 billion users in the fall (read Tik Tok, the video app that’s defining our zeitgeist.) Since it was launched, Tik Tok has attracted hundreds of young Americans—60% of Tik Tok’s monthly active users in the US are 16 to 24 years old. It is, without a doubt, Gen Z’s preferred social media platform, and quarantine numbers further prove the generation’s preference. According to McKinsey & Company COVID-19 US Consumer Pulse Survey, 33% of the Gen Z respondents have started using Tik Tok or have increased their usage of the app since the crisis began. Other generations have taken to the app while social distancing as well—12% of the millennials that responded to the survey had joined the Chinese app.

In times of quarantine, Tik Tok presents four main advantages. For one, it’s free. Second, it’s upbeat. Users go to Tik Tok to disconnect, to have fun, to forget the day they’ve had. With COVID-19, that seems like a must. Third, it’s immersive. When you open the platform on the smartphone, videos start playing according to your tastes. On the screen, the user only sees the video of that person dancing or that other singing, without any other distractions.

Finally, the content’s app is not pretentious. While Instagram has turned to an influencers’ paradise—especially during quarantine,—where everyone is trying to show their cooking, dancing, singing, writing, and painting skills; Tik Tok is not about pretending but having a good time. For example, a trend on Tik Tok, started by the 15-year old American dancer Charli d’Amelio, is the #DistanceDance. The challenge consists of short videos of people dancing for the camera while at home. In January, The New York Times named d’Amelio Tik Tok’s reigning queen. Another Tik Tok jewel that recently became viral among Spanish speakers is one of two brothers following what has been dubbed as the Esperancita challenge. 

Watch the Tik Tok Esperancita challenge shared by PostureoEspa?ol on Instagram:

For those reasons, Tik Tok’s numbers have soared. Add to it that we are confined at home and spending more time and money on entertainment, and the results are not surprising (read Entertainment in times of quarantine). 

The video app was downloaded 2 million times between March 16 and 22, an 18% increase from the previous week, according to Music Business Worldwide. The surge in the first three weeks of March was even higher—27%—compared to the February downloads. Another eye-opening example outside the US is Italy. The quarantined country saw a 35% increase in downloads in the March 16-22 week, compared to the previous one. (Italy has been under government lockdown since March 9).

Tik Tok, like other social media platforms, gets its revenues from advertising. The platform launched its ad feature in early 2019. But in December, only a few advertisers had ventured to invest in the app—4% of social media marketerswere using the platform. The numbers could explode in 2020, taking away ad dollars from other platforms. According to Music Business Worldwide, Tik Tok’s US revenue for the March 16-22 week was 34% higher than the previous week’s—$1.1 million vs. $822,000. 

Companies that place ads with Tik Tok usually launch challenges through hashtags to create buzz around a product. Many times, they push those challenges through influencers, already popular on the app. Food chain Chipotle launched one such campaign through Tik Tok in May of last year with a challenge called #ChipotleLidFlip. Users clicked on the ad and started recording their own version of the video. By early June, the hashtag had more than 230 million views and had generated over 250,000 video submissions. Now, Tik Tok is marketing that experience to lure new customers. 

Watch the Tik Tok Chipotle challenge shared on Chipotle’s Instagram account:

With quarantines in place, Tik Tok’s numbers will keep increasing to the detriment of other social media platforms. Although there’s been an increase in social media use across the board since mid-March, Tik Tok’s numbers prove the app works, especially with younger audiences. Facebook should especially keep an eye on the ByteDance product, which competes with Instagram and Lasso (read Tik Tok, Facebook’s worst nightmare.) 

One thing is clear—Tik Tok is what we need right now, a way to distract ourselves. Other social media platforms may provide means to connect with friends or look at what other people are doing, but they are not giving us a way out. Tik Tok is, and it’s fun. That’s why its numbers will keep soaring, especially with lockdowns in place.

Carmen Arroyo & Josep Valor.

Published in Media Matters, a blog by IESE Business School.